There are known various types of toy building blocks formed of folded sheet material. Examples of such blocks appear in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,702,520: 3,665,669: 2,751,705 and 1,237,728. U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,799 described a building block system in which hollow blocks formed of corrugated cardboard, for example, have top edge openings receiving inverted U-shaped connectors for joining successive blocks together in a row or course and end slots together with top center slots receiving T-shaped connectors that include locking means for joining stacked rows or courses together.
The present invention seeks to provide an improved toy block formed of folded sheet material.
There is thus provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention a toy block comprising:
sheet material folded to form a toy block having a plurality of planar surfaces,
a plurality of holes formed on at least one of the planar surfaces; and
a plurality of protrusions removably retained by the folded sheet material and extending outwardly from at least one of the planar surfaces,
whereby the protrusions of one block are arranged for selectable and removable interlocking interengagement with the holes of another block.
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the protrusions are provided with flanges which are retained between adjacent folded surfaces of sheet material forming the block.
There is also provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention a toy block comprising:
sheet material folded to form a toy block having a plurality of planar surfaces,
said sheet material being perforated to define holes at at least first, second and third locations thereon;
said sheet material being folded such that said holes at said first location and said holes at said second location overlap in registration at a first planar surface of said block. thereby defining holes extending from the exterior to the interior of said block;
said sheet material being folded such that the holes at said third location overlap sheet material at a forth location;
protrusion means extending outwardly through said holes at said third location and being retained between the sheet material at said third location and said sheet material at said fourth location, whereby mating engagement between the protrusion means of one block and the holes defined by holes extending through the block at said first and second locations is provided.
Preferably, the holes are generally circular and the protrusions are generally cylindrical, having a flange adjacent one end thereof for being retained within the folded block.